THE ADVENTURERS 179
merchants who had come from China, taking
nine months to travel from Peking. But he found
he could not do much in the way of trade. No
one wanted English woollens, and he had no use
for the slaves or horses which were offered him,
- so he returned. The Queen was interested in his
experiences, and in 1561 she gave him letters.
These letters were to the great Tsar of Russia,
Ivan the Terrible, and to the Shah of Persia,
and Jenkinson was able to deliver them to both
sovereigns. He went first to Moscow, where Ivan
received him well and asked him to try and buy
silks and jewels for him in the East. He travelled
on, reached Tersia safely, and went to Kasvin
where the Shah had his court. No one in England
then knew Arabic, so, clp^g *ke best they could,
his letters were written in " Latin, Hebrew, and
Italian "; but the Persian court could speak none
of these languages. Hov?ever, interpreters were
found at last, but, unluckily for Jenkinson, the
Shah -was a deeply religious Mohammedan, and
his first questions were as to the Englishman^
religion. Finding that he was a Christian he
ordered him to depart at once. Indeed, he was
considered to have defiled the ground with his
footsteps; and, as fie hurriedly left the Shah's
presence, he was followed by an official with a
great basin of sand, which was strewn on the
ground after him to purify it where he had trodden.
Some of the merchants were not so particular,
and they made Jenkinson understand that trade